When The Dust Settles
by CrackedAbyss
Summary: After the events of the battle of Beacon Pyrrha wakes up in her dorm, follow her as she tries to piece together what happened and where everyone is. Inspired by the work of Stanty16 found on YouTube under the same name


All she could feel was pain. It felt as if her chest were on fire, being burned from the inside out. Her breaths were coming in quick short gasps and each one burned her evermore; as she stared defiantly up at Cinder her vision began to darken and blur at the edges. She vaguely recalled hearing some rubble shift to her left and she could have sworn she caught a glimpse of red, but she couldn't tear her vision away from the foe in front of her.

Cinder started to walk the short distance to where Pyrrha was kneeled on the floor. Her vision was growing darker by the second, her arms felt very weak; she couldn't hold them up any longer. Pyrrha watched as Cinder reached out towards her face. For a fleeting second Pyrrha thought Cinder was going to caress her face, until she felt the slight weight and pressure that was her circlet being lifted from her head; and then the pain stopped and she knew nothing, nothing but silence and darkness.

* * *

Her eyes sprang open and she sat up gasping expecting to feel pain but finding none she looked around expecting to see someone, she didn't know who or why but she felt her heart pounding in her chest as if she had just been in a fight. As she calmed she noticed that she was in the dorm room that she shared with the rest of team JNPR, she looked to the desk next to her bed expecting to find… but Jaune wasn't there… in fact nor were Ren or Nora. The room was almost lifeless without the others.

Pyrrha got up from bed and noticed she was already in her school uniform, she couldn't remember what happened, but knew something was not quite right. She walked out her door and looked left and right down the eerily quiet hallway. Feeling uneasy Pyrrha quickly crossed the hallway and knocked on team RWBY's door.

"Ruby…?" She waited for a response from the other side but got nothing.

"Yang…?" She tried again and still received no answer.

"Weiss…? Blake…?" She started to feel dread after each name she called out and receiving no answer. The feeling sinking lower and lower into her mind. Pyrrha tried the door handle and found it locked; after a quick thought in which she second guessed what she was about to do Pyrrha decided it was better to deal with the consequences then the despair that was sitting in her stomach. Pyrrha took a step away from the door and took a breath to steady herself.

She focused her semblance on the door handle; intending to unlock it. What she was unprepared for was the entire door handle to shoot out and completely embed itself in the wall behind her. She turned back to the door and gently pushed the door open, as it gently swung open Pyrrha stepped over the threshold and into the room, she looked around the small room and found no one, not even Zwei; her stomach fell in disappointment when she found no one. It was as if they had just left the room…or were yet to get there, Pyrrha couldn't decide which one fit better.

Pyrrha started to turn away when a ray of sunshine from the open window was glistening off the top of one of the makeshift bunk beds. Upon closer inspection Pyrrha found half of Ember Celica, Yang's weapon. She found this odd because she knew the blonde brawler never went anywhere without both of her gauntlets. She started to turn back towards the door when she caught her reflection in a mirror, Weiss' mirror if she remembered correctly. She walked up to the full length mirror and gazed into it for a moment noticing the difference; it wasn't that there was anything wrong… Well there was. Her circlet was gone; she couldn't remember what had happened to it. No one would ever call Pyrrha vain but she still cared about her appearance and while she knew it was not important at this time, she felt a little hollow without it, like a small piece of her was missing.

In fact now that she thought on the subject she found she couldn't remember a lot recently, and it was starting to frighten her. She could remember where she was, her friends, and her family. She just couldn't recall the events that led up to her being in her current predicament. The last thing she remembered was Yang and Weiss' fight against Neon and Flint of team FNKI from Atlas…but she knew more had occurred since then, she just couldn't remember what. She left the room in search of someone, anyone really, right now she'd even settle for Cardin…well maybe not Cardin.

She checked Professor Port' classroom first but found no one, she continued through the hallways to Professor Oobleck's room and experienced her first glimmer of hope, their sitting on the main desk at the bottom of the lecture hall was a cup of coffee with steam lazily rising from the surface of the drink. As if he had just put it down, this drove Pyrrha' despair away, not only was the drink hot enough to create steam, but anyone who knew Professor Oobleck, knew he never traveled very far from his coffee. This being the true first sign of life that Pyrrha had seen, she decided the best course of action was to wait for the Professor to return, so she waited…and waited…and waited…it wasn't until the clock had shown that two hours had passed that she decided to give up her silent staring contest with the cup, that she noticed was still steaming.

She decided that she needed to continue her search in a new area her next stop was the library and then the cafeteria surly there would be people in at least one of the places.

* * *

No one, not a single person seemed to be in the school at all. The library was almost in pristine condition the only exception to this was a few books that were laid on some of the tables, some open as if the person who was reading it had just disappeared behind the rack for another book. The cafeteria was filled to the brim with food, almost as if a banquet was to take place at any minute; it was just waiting for the guests to arrive. All the food was steaming hot and looked most inviting; but while it had felt like hours since she had awoken in her dorm room and started her search for people, Pyrrha had not felt hunger or thirst; nor the pain that went with not having either. The only noise Pyrrha heard as she walked through the eerily quiet, yet surprisingly loud amphitheater was the clacking of the heels of her shoes as the struck against the floor the echo of one connecting to the next in an almost endless noise. Rushing the last few steps she burst through the doors leading to Beacons main avenue

As she stepped out onto the main Avenue a warm soft breeze greeted her carrying the smell of morning dew. As she walked the small feeling of despair that she had felt earlier had returned and now felt like a deep endless pit in her stomach. She slowly made her way to the statue of the hunter and huntress and collapse at its base in utter defeat, her search had finally gotten to her; she was alone…It seemed that no one was anywhere in the school or its surrounding grounds, and if she were to hazard a guess, Vale would probably look as deserted as the school. As she sat at the base of the statue, her gaze drifted upwards to the hunter holding his sword aloft in defiance of the darkness; but as Pyrrha followed the sword with her eyes she saw another glimmer of hope, the Amity colosseum was floating lazily in the sky. While the despair was still there she had to keep a hold of whatever amount of hope she could.

With her renewed amount of hope Pyrrha pushed herself up from the statue and started to make her way towards one of the aerial docking bays. She almost cried out in joy when she saw one of the air buses docked there. She quickened her pace and rushed aboard the air bus hoping against hope to find someone aboard, but like everything else it too was empty. She approached the crew cabin and found like the rest of the ship, it too was empty. She sat in the pilot's seat and looked at the controls. She didn't even know how to drive a car let alone fly an air bus, but she had to get the arena; she didn't know why she just knew she had to get there.

She tried the control yoke and the ship gave an audible grumble and shook violently, she immediately let go of the yoke and the ship settled. She was about to try once more when she noticed a button on the console in front of her. It was an autopilot, she pressed it and a new screen opened up on the display, it gave her current location at the Beacon aerial docks and left the destination blank. She quickly typed her destination as the Amity colosseum aerial docks and confirmed that was the correct destination the ships guidance took a moment to locate the position of the colosseum. The ship then prompted her to confirm that all passengers were aboard and after confirming it, it started a pre-flight check of all of its systems as well as a timer to departure. Pyrrha decided she should move back to the passenger cabin and strap in. As she sat down the rear door of the transport slowly closed and sealed into place. And the ship slowly lifted away from the docks

* * *

As the ship docked with the Amity colosseum Pyrrha ducked under the opening door and rushed into the arena, she sped past the concession stands and into the viewing gallery she wasn't surprised that the stands were empty, but she was surprised to see someone on the main arena battle floor. Pyrrha took off like a gun shot down the stairs to the very lowest level and vaulted over the safety railing and dropped the eighteen feet below to the arena floor. Pyrrha tucked into a ball and landed in a roll springing back up and keeping most of her speed. She skidded to a halt once she could see who it was, with her pink bow perched atop her head and giving her a friendly smile with her head cocked to the side slightly to the right.

"Salutations Pyrrha Nikos. I have not seen you since our battle here. I hope you are well."

"P..Penny…I…You." Pyrrha managed to stuttered out.

"Pyrrha Nikos, have you seen Ruby? She is my friend and I have not seen her in a while and I am worried…" Pyrrha sank to the ground as her memories started to return. The story of the maidens, Ozpin telling her that they wanted her to inherit the remaining fall maiden powers, her battle with Penny, the Nevermore the Giant…whatever that thing was Cinder killing Amber, Jaune, Oh Jaune… I'm so sorry Jaune; CINDER! Pyrrha clutched at her chest where the arrow had embedded itself in her skin almost certain she was going to find the offending object still there. Her tears were now freely falling down Pyrrha' face as she realized the truth of the situation.

"Penny…I…I'm so sorry…I there were so many swords…tricked me…please forgive me." Pyrrha sobbed out to the girl she accidentally killed. Pyrrha saw the slow realization that dawned over Penny. And saw her eyes grow wide in recognition.

"This cannot be…I…I'm not real, Pyrrha I…But Ruby did say she knew I had a soul." Penny didn't notice that she had started crying nor did she realize that she sank down next to Pyrrha. Pyrrha reached out and pulled the smaller girl to her into a hug offering her whatever comfort and support she could. Penny's crying subsided a few moments later

"Pyrrha Nikos, your coat is now wet." Penny said as she returned to sitting up straight to give Pyrrha some room.

"Well you were just crying." Pyrrha said gently to Penny.

"But I can't…" Penny touched her cheek feeling the wetness from the tears that were just there moments ago. Actually feeling them, not her sensors telling her that she was detecting moister and pressure on her exterior, she looked up to Pyrrha.

"What do we do now Pyrrha Nikos?"

"Please Penny, It's just Pyrrha…and I suppose we wait…for a very long time I hope…for our friends and family to join us here.

"Why, are the gone, Pyrrha Ni…Pyrrha?"

"No, there just not here right now."

* * *

A/N I Own nothing all Rights on characters and properties belong to their rightful owners.

This is my first time writing again in years and it felt rally good to do it, I might post some more stuff in the near future so keep an eye out.

Reviews are welcome, it's how i can learn hoe to improve please feel free to review and if you want check out my other content if it interests you but fair warning they ate not complete and I am not sure when or if they will be.


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